President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

From the WaPo's Daily Finance:


President Trump’s trade offensive just drew its first serious opposition at home.

Congressional Republican leaders may be unwilling for now to do more than voice their objections to billions of dollars in tariffs the administration is moving to impose on imports from around the globe. But the Koch brothers’ political network is stepping into the breach, launching what its executives are framing as a multiyear, multimillion-dollar campaign to knock down the new trade barriers.

The push by the deep-pocketed conservative powerhouse threatens, for one, to reorder the debate around the president’s trade agenda. Republican lawmakers seeking reelection in a perilous environment have been largely loath to challenge the president. The Koch network is offering an incentive, demanding candidates fight for free trade to win its potentially make-or-break backing.

“We’ll be supporting those folks who will be champions, not just passive supporters,” Freedom Partners Executive Vice President James Davis said in an interview. He said the group is evaluating candidates on other issues, too — including tax and regulatory policy, immigration and sentencing reform — but trade ranks as a top criterion.

It's unclear where exactly the Koch organizations will direct their firepower, but it seems possible they could intervene in Republican primaries, an unwelcome development for Republicans already in a tough political environment.

The campaign, which is also backed by the Koch-sponsored Americans for Prosperity and the Libre Initiative, will include spending on “paid media, activist education and grassroots mobilization, lobbying and policy analysis,” the groups said in a release. Davis said that includes an aim to shape public opinion beyond Washington. “We recognize that there has been a rise in protectionist rhetoric and sentiment from both the Republican and Democratic parties, and we want to make sure we’re connecting Americans to the benefits of free trade over the long term,” he said.

The White House has been ramping up trade hostilities against traditional friends and foes alike in recent days: The administration imposed new levies on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico last week and threatened to press ahead with at least $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese products. More than backing off of those moves, the Koch groups said in a Monday statement of principles that the U.S. should embrace new free trade deals by updating the North American Free Trade Agreement and moving to forge pacts with the United Kingdom, the EU, and Pacific Rim nations.

The move marks something of a break for the Koch network, which spent much of last year lending critical outside help to the White House-led drive for business-focused tax cuts. But the group began signaling frustration this spring with what they view as a diminished Republican agenda. “For now, the network led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch still plans to spend between $300 million to $400 million on politics and policy during the 2018 cycle,” my colleague James Hohmann wrote back in April. “But they’re growing impatient, rethinking their approach and signaling a willingness to work more closely with Democrats on areas of common ground.”

The Koch network is hardly the only business group decrying Trump's trade moves. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Retail Federation, among many others, have denounced the tariffs as growth-killers. But the complaints haven't yet morphed into an effort by those groups to exact a political price from policymakers who enable protectionism.

Davis said while the organizations will continue to invest in promoting the benefits of the tax cuts — a cornerstone of the argument Republicans are making to voters in the midterms — their new focus on fighting Trump’s trade moves will inevitably cut in. “Are some staffers going to have to divide their attention? Yes,” he said. “It is a significant policy challenge and one that we’re going to bring a lot of resources to.”

 

That's just stupid.
George W. Bush proved that it's the Republicans who control hurricanes and use them to destroy political opposition.

 

Alberto supposedly was one of the first in about a century to reach the Great Lakes. If Bret devastates Waukesha, I sense a trend.

 

Trump's presidential library will be the first to only contain works of fiction.

 

It's the politics thread, Charlie Brown.

 

Except in Seattle.

 

Either that, or he posted it for real and then deleted it. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah, I know.

 

I asked if you denounced it, not if you posted a tweet. You made such a big deal out of your grave concerns regarding the media that I expect something like this would get you very upset.

Also, I'm having trouble getting tweets to load on the site again today, so I couldn't see what you were commenting on with the crack regarding Ertz. That's why I asked the question. I was wondering if you had actually put aside your politics and your broad brush long enough to show some consistency. Of course, you had to respond to my question by being you, but I've learned to lower my expectations where you are concerned.

 

Taylor said that Christians must engage in warfare prayer that those in the government who are loyal to Trump will gain control of “the technology behind the storm” in order to protect the elections.

Warfare prayer! Secret Jesus weapon!!!

YF, you in? QBALL?